Archaeologists often make gruesome, significant, and fascinating discoveries, but some of their finds are downright repulsive – sometimes they unearth ancient foods. These foods date back thousands of years, making them actual archaeological discoveries, and most of them sound pretty disgusting. Archaeologists find food all the time, whether it's hiding in ancient tombs, resting on the bottom of the sea in a sunken ship, or tied around the neck of a mummy. These ancient food discoveries range from the palatable – such as preserved honey found in Egyptian pyramids – to the completely revolting – 5,000-year-old butter pulled out of a bog – to the culturally significant – 4,000-year-old preserved noodles discovered at Lajia site, also known as China's Pompeii. Take a look through the oldest foods archaeologists have discovered, and contemplate facing these choices at a sadistic buffet. What would be the absolutely worst food to eat today?
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Some of the best archaeological food discoveries come from tombs, where people were buried with provisions for the afterlife. Archaeologists working in China found a surprising food haul in one tomb, where they uncovered a bronze cooking pot. When they opened the pot, they found 2,400-year-old bone soup. Because of oxidization, the soup turned green, but it was still in liquid form, and the bones were still floating on top.
Archaeologists found a mysterious black substance in an ancient tomb in Shaanxi Province, China, that dates back at least 2,200 years. After months of testing, they determined that they had discovered the world’s oldest beef jerky. The jerky was sealed in a bronze pot to feed the tomb’s inhabitants on their journey to the afterlife. Today, the beef has mostly carbonized, giving it a green, moss-like appearance.
One Irish butter farmer from 3,000 years ago buried his cache of butter in a bog – and then forgot about it. The oldest example of bog butter dates back 5,000 years, and nearly 300 different chunks of bog butter have been dragged from the peat. Many are baffled as to why farmers would throw their butter into a bog. Butter was a valuable commodity – some people even used it to pay taxes. As such, hiding butter in a bog was the ancient equivalent of hiding money in a mattress. Ireland even considers bog butter to be a national treasure.
In February 2020, a cache of 600 beer bottles was discovered below the staircase of what was once a Victorian brewery in Leeds, England. The bottles were found neatly stacked in the ancient remains of the Scarborough Castle Inn, which was part of Tetley's Brewery (established in 1822). According to Archaeological Services WYAS, the group responsible for the find, many of the bottles still contained liquid and were sent to a lab for analysis. At first, the bottles' contents were thought to be ginger beer, but the liquid was later confirmed to not only be alcoholic (at 3% alcohol by volume) but also disturbingly toxic. The beer contained a high volume of lead, at 0.13 mg/l, which is well above the safe level of 0.01 mg/l recommended by the World Health Organization. On its Facebook page, Archaelogical Services WYAS notes that the high level of lead may be due to contamination from water being transported through lead pipes. David Williams, senior project manager at Archaeological Services WYAS, told The Drinks Business that the bottles probably date to the late 19th century, “perhaps the 1880s.”
The oldest unopened bottle of wine is almost 1,700 years old and comes from a Roman tomb near Speyer, Germany. The bottle was discovered during the excavation of a Roman nobleman’s tomb that dates between 325 and 359 CE. Following its discovery, the unopened bottle was placed in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer. The ancient wine bottle survived the fall of Rome, the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and several major wars, all while remaining intact. A combination of olive oil poured in the bottle and a thick wax seal preserved the contents. As for the wine’s taste, wine professor Monika Christmann warns, “it would not bring joy to the palate.”
Around 2,000 years ago, a ship sunk in the Mediterranean on its way from Italy to Spain. The hull was filled with sealed glass jars containing foods like grain, olive oil, and pickled fish. Archaeologists believe the foods were going to be traded in Spain for other goods.
Archaeologists found a 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles in China. The long, yellow noodles were preserved inside an overturned bowl buried under 10 feet of dirt. The noodles were likely preserved after an ancient earthquake flooded the Yellow River. The flood interrupted one person's meal, preserving the noodles in a vacuum between the sediment and the bowl.
The very first farmers in Britain were making bread – and burning it – 5,500 years ago. Archaeologists found the bread, made from barley, in a pit near Oxford. The bread was either tossed into a garbage pit or intended as a religious offering. The hunk of bread looked so much like the hunk of coal pictured here, scientists originally mistook the find for charcoal. Once they put the bread under the microscope, however, ancient grains of barley became visible.
In 2006, a team of scientists sent a robot into an ancient Greek shipwreck to collect jars from the bottom of the sea. After DNA testing, the scientists determined that the jars contained olive oil infused with oregano – essentially, 2,400-year-old salad dressing. The antioxidant properties of the oregano helped preserve the food that dates back to the days of Aristotle and Socrates.
In 2012, archaeologists produced a study that proved that Peruvians were making popcorn as early as 6,700 years ago. Ancient Peruvians likely made popcorn by wrapping a cob and resting it on coals until the kernels popped, roasting the corn directly over flame, or cooking the cob in an oven.
The oldest sample of honey from the Egyptian pyramids is approximately 3,000 years old. Scientists even claim the honey is still edible because of its natural “preservatives,” namely its low water content, acidic properties, and small amounts of hydrogen peroxide – a byproduct of bees’ stomachs. In addition to food, ancient Egyptians used honey as an ingredient in their embalming fluid.
